Healthcare Providers' Experiences with Screening for Intimate Partner Violence Among Migrant and Seasonal Farmworking Women : A Phenomenological Study

Abstract

Migrant and seasonal farmworking (MSFW) women experience greater levels of intimate partner violence (IPV) and have lower awareness of available resources than the general population. Although healthcare providers have the capacity to screen for IPV and provide resources to MSFW patients who have been victimized by IPV, most healthcare providers who work with MSFW patients choose not to screen for IPV. In order to develop a better understanding of the lived experiences of healthcare providers who serve the MSFW community and have encountered patients who have experienced IPV, two research articles were completed: (a) a policy brief designed to explore previous literature pertaining to IPV screenings in healthcare settings and to recommend policies that may help improve the detection, intervention, resources, and available science with respect to the MSFW population, and (b) a descriptive phenomenological study designed to capture the lived experiences of screening for and addressing IPV of nine healthcare providers. The policy brief revealed that (a) IPV prevalence among the MSFW community is higher than the general population; (b) awareness of resources among MSFW women who have been victimized by IPV is low; and (c) no studies have been published regarding IPV screenings of MSFW women in healthcare settings. The research study revealed four emergent themes describing the experiences of healthcare providers who have screened for or addressed IPV among their MSFW women patients: provider-centered factors, patient-centered factors, clinic-centered factors, and community-centered factors. Implications and recommendations developed from both articles are extended for clinicians, researchers, and policy makers who care about the needs of members of the MSFW community who have experienced IPV and the healthcare providers who serve them.